Sand or Crushed Coral?

[tomrwhite]

I have a 72 gallon bowfront sitting in my living room.....should I use sand or crushed coral for my substrate.....my goal is to have a reef tank, with living rock, corals, and fish.....

 

[ophiura]

SAND SAND SAND SAND SAND SAND SAND SAND
Any questions?
Do a search for "crushed coral"

 

[tomrwhite]

My partner wasn't sure, about my decision to use sand, we are not using an under gravel filter as we did before in our 55 gallon. Thank you for confirming my decision to use sand!

 

[swatskee]

i started up my 55g with 40# CC and 20# LS. The sand will settle and the CC will always come to the top so layering does not work. I recently removed all the substrate and replaced it with 80# LS. no more diatom on my substrate since it's been replaced and it looks great, much better.
GO WITH THE SAND!!!!

 

[feixjai]

i would also say sand. it looks kind of better and why crush a beautiful coral when you can have the whole beautiful corals?

 

[lillibirdy]

I very much like the looks of CC, and when I earlier had the same question, I asked many people on several forums. The new way of running tanks is sand, and so folks will always tell you sand. But, CC is still alive and well out there and working fine for many people. And critters grow in it fine too, as long as it isn't really sharp. Some is softly rounded, like rice krispies.

 

[shiby1510]

the marine life that you keep in your tank care more about the size of the substrate :happyfish

 

[maeistero]

:thinking: i always wondered why forums had search functions and the ability to go to the next page.

 

[ophiura]

People CAN use crushed coral, and there are still critters in it. But it does nothing for reduction of nitrates (granted, you need a deep sand bed), it limits the sort of critters you can keep (sand gobies, sand cukes, etc) and can be a big time detritus trap.

 

[edwar050]

If I had to pick I would say neither, or a faux sandbed "A fake sandbed". I personally like bare bottoms ease once setup right